Series: Read Write Respond

At work, things were in place for the end of year. I had unpacked everything and thought I had put in place a clear plan. However, what I learnt is that I was only in charge of half the picture. Things blew up in regards to aspects that were outside of my control. In addition to this, I had another issue arise that I had not accounted for take up a significant amount of time. In some ways, this reminded of Nassim Nicholas Taleb discussion of extremistan in The Black Swan:

On the 79th day, if the project is not finished, it will be expected to take another 25 days to complete. But on the 90th day, if the project is still not completed, it should have about 58 days to go. On the 100th, it should have 89 days to go. On the 119th, it should have an extra 149 days. On day 600, if the project is not done, you will be expected to need an extra 1,590 days. As you see, the longer you wait, the longer you will be expected to wait.(Page 159)

On the family front, my wife and I celebrated our fortieth. Our girls had their end of year dance concert, outdoors. We even went to children’s party at an indoor playcenter. It all feels really strange now as the number of cases where I live have skyrocketed.

On the personal front, I went to my first concert for years. I saw Twinkle Digitz and Damian Cowell’s Disco Machine. I had forgotten what I had missed. On the birthday front, I got two synthesisers, a Roland MC-101 and Behringer MS-1. After spending years thinking that it was enough to have an app, I am really enjoying the therapy of tweeking physical knobs. In regards to my listening, I have been getting into new albums from Damian Cowell’s Disco Machine and The War on Drugs. While I continued with my return to books, diving into Milan Kundera’s The Book of Laughter and Forgetting and Marcel Proust’s Swann’s Way.

Here then are some of the posts that have had me thinking:

Education

How music boosts learning and wellbeing (Big Ideas)

Anita Collins unpacks a number of benefits associated with music, including the association between hearing, speaking and reading, the importance of melodies in voice to aid cognitive development, the connection between singing and empathy, the link between rhythm and learning to read, and how learning a new instrument at 40-50 can help reduce cognitive decline when you are older.

What is Design Thinking and how can teachers get started?

Tom Barrett provides an introduction to Design Thinking. He addresses what it is, its purpose and how it can help in education.

Schools are surveying students to improve teaching. But many teachers find the feedback too difficult to act on

Ilana Finefter-Rosenbluh, Melissa Barnes and Tracii Ryan discuss the challenge between collecting feedback and improving learning outcomes.

First Steps to Getting Started in Open Source Research

Giancarlo Fiorella provides a number of tips for getting started with open source research.

Can “Distraction-Free” Devices Change the Way We Write? 

From literary Rube Goldberg workflows, distraction-free text editors and e-ink tablets, Julian Lucas dives into the world of distraction-free writing. He explores the friction between paper and computers, and the benefits and negatives associates with each.

Technology

Why it’s too early to get excited about Web3

Tim O’Reilly explains that investments and speculations in technology do not equate to success. The lay of the land is only visible years later.

Tapefear

Chris Johnson has created a site for discovering music that would not normally be surfaced by the Spotify algorithm.

Spotify Wrapped, unwrapped

Reflecting upon Spotify’s Wrapped, the yearly review, Kelly Pau reminds us of the place of algorithms and artificial intelligence embedded within these choices.

Learn from machine learning

David Weinberger compares the way in which the Western world has traditionally conceived of generalisations and certainty with the way in which machine learning works.

Turning Text into Music (A Small AI Experiment)

Kevin Hodgson dives into the world algorithmic music generation.

General

History is Over (Throughline)

With the anniversary of Kid A and Amnesiac, as well as Kid A Mnesia Exhibition, Rund Abdelfatah and Ramtin Arablouei speak with Stanley Donwood and Thom Yorke about legacy of albums.

Why U2’s One is the ultimate anthem

Dorian Lynskey dives into the many ambiguities associated U2’s song One.

The story of Paul Mac

From classical piano to Itch-E and Scratch-E to Dissociatives to Stereogamous to teaching at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Paul Mac has had a wide ranging career.

David Graeber’s Possible Worlds

Molly Fischer digs into the life and thinking of David Graeber, including how he got so things done on just five hours sleep a night.

Samples

Chris Beckstrom has put together a wide collection of electronic samples  derived from his modular setup.

Read Write Respond #071

So that was November/December for me, how about you? As always, hope you are safe and well.

Cover image via “Time Isles: Post Apocalyptic” by Brick.Ninja is licensed under CC BY-SA

At work, I have been continuing my work associated with improving the end of year process. This has involved a lot of time spent setting up data and capturing screenshots, only to have to do it all over again when somebody points out an issue. It all seems to be coming into place, however a part of me will be glad when we have burst the rocket through the outer atmosphere.

On the family front, my wife and I have both had our second jabs and have started the long road out of lockdown. This has included getting out to Bunnings, catching up with relatives and having a few park dates. Associated with this, the children are back to school. However, it only took three days for the school to be shutdown. With so many cases still in the local community, still seems premature to be popping any champagne.

Personally, I have read a number of books this month, including Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, Tony Martin’s Lolly Scramble, Albert Camus’ The Plague and Dave Grohl’s The Storyteller. In regards to music, I have been listening to new albums from Client Liason and Herbert. My wife and I also binged our way through The Crown and Maid. In respect to tinkering, I moved to AntennaPod for listening to podcasts and have been scratching my head about how to get all my self-mentions back on my site which mysteriously disappeared. Ah, the pleasure of owning your own space.

Here then are some of the posts that have had me thinking:

Education

In the Pursuit of Knowledge, There Be Dragons

danah boyd explains why it is important to consider the limits of data and the biases embedded within visualisations.

Gary Paulsen Understood That Children Live in the World

Jonah Walters reflects on the life and legacy of author Gary Paulsen.

Why Alan Tudge is now on the history warpath

Naomi Barnes unpacks Alan Tudge’s challenge to the history curriculum.

Laptops

Gary Stager discusses Coombabah State School and Methodist Ladies’ College, the first two schools to engage with the 1:1 laptop revolution.

Videogames or homework? Why not both, as ACMI has 75 game lessons for you to try

Amber McLeod and Jo Blannin discuss ACMI’s Games Lessons library.

Technology

How To Recognize When Tech Is Leading Us Down a ‘Slippery Slope’

Clive Thompson speaks with Evan Selinger about how to understand when technology is leading us down the slipery slope.

Drummer to WordPress

Frank Meeuwsen explores the intigration between Dave Winer’s new application Drummer and WordPress.

The Wrong Question

Chris Betcher on the importance of focusing on the verb not the noun when it comes to technology.

RSS Discovery Engine

Brandon Quakkelaar provides another potential for serendipity and possibly rewilding attention.

General

On the Internet, We’re Always Famous

Chris Hayes suggests that the star desires recognition from the fan, but as the star does not recognise the fan’s humanity, all they can ever receive is attention.

Rachel Roddy: An A–Z of Pasta Twenty-one letters, fifty shapes, unlimited possibilities (Eat This Podcast)

Jeremy Cherfas speaks with Rachel Roddy about all things pasta.

Real Dictators

The Real Dictators is a podcast series which dives into the world of some of histories infamous leaders.

Is mandatory COVID-19 vaccination ethical?

Margaret Somerville explores the ethics associated with mandatory vaccination.

Read Write Respond #070

So that was October for me, how about you? As always, hope you are safe and well.

I was reminded again that a month is a long time. My reading workflow is usually to progressively scour through my RSS feeds and anything that is too long to read at the time to save for later. This sometimes means that I may not get to a piece for a few weeks. One of the consequences of this is that what might have seemed important or significant no longer holds the same weight. For example, I had saved a few pieces on Gladys Berijlyin’s decision to cancel the daily lockdown briefings, yet now that she has since resigned it somehow seems strangely both less and more important.

In other news, my wife and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary. Usually we would do something together, without the tiddlywinks, but in these strange times we both got gifts that could – alcohol aside – be shared by everyone. Our children also decided to celebrate the holidays by having sleepovers – in each others rooms. I guess we all need to find novelty somewhere in life. For me, it has been giving up coffee after our youngest told me I could not live without it. I will return, sometime.

On the work front, I could only sit back and wait for someone above me to take ownership for so long, so I have taken on the challenge of improving the end of year process, especially as their is an appetite for automation (or for it to be done by a whole lot of Mechanical Turks.) My manager was shocked when we had our first meeting as I had already done a significant amount of work. The biggest challenge I have had is getting other people to engage in the pain points. It is always the challenge of a large project, you can only control so much in a team game.

Personally, I have continued my return to reading. Diving into Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway, Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera, F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. In regards to music, I have been listening to new albums from Kacey Musgrave and the collaboration between Sufjan Stevens and Angelo De Augustine, as well as a playlist of all the songs mentioned in Damian Cowell’s Only the Shit You Love Podcast. In relation to writing, I have continued documenting some of my work with Google Sheets, including creating a catalogue of files and creating a template to efficiently review large sets of data. I also completed Ben Collins’ new REGEX course.

So other than all that, here are some of the posts that have had me thinking:

Education

Giving time for students to think – using learning logs to guide student reflection

Alice Leung discussed her use of learning logs to support goals and reflection.

Counting learning losses

Ben Williamson explores what we actually talk about when we talk about ‘learning lose’.

Creativity Self-Assessment Is Nonsense

Wouter Groeneveld explains that creativity is not in what is created, but rather in the act of the critic.

What do we talk about when we talk about ‘data’ in schools?

Neil Selwyn unpacks what it is we talk about when we talk about data in education.

Decolonising Your Classroom: Five Ways Forward

Dr Aleryk Fricker provides five tips for undoing colonial structures, including make space for First Nations content, provide visibility of First Nations contexts and engage with the local First Nations community.

Technology

File Not Found

Monica Chin explores some of the changes in student habits when it comes to managing files and data. Where computers are traditionally organised into filing cabinets, this has been replaced for some by the habit of simply searching for the particular item.

Tears in Rain

Damon Krukowski discusses the difference between “pro-rata” verses “user-centric” when it comes to streaming music.

Wearable Computers Should Never Have Cameras

With the release of Facebook’s Ray Ban glasses, Clive Thompson discusses some of the problems associated with cameras in glasses.

Sheet Posting

Tyler Robertson has created an app with Glitch to use a Google Sheet to generate a blog with an associated feed. This includes options in regards to SEO and CSS.

You Don’t Need to Burn off Your Fingertips (and Other Biometric Authentication Myths)

Troy Hunt explains why stealling somebodies biomatric data is so much more difficult than a password.

General

Become a Better Digital Researcher: Tips From Tedium

Ernie Smith discusses how he conducts research for Tedium.

Brilliance and Blind Luck: How Did Medieval Europe Invent the Concept of Quarantine?

Edward Glaeser and David Cutler discuss the roll of quarantine in history in managing disease carried via trade and human movement.

Stem Mixer – Courtney Barnett

Courtney Barnett has shared her new songs as eight stems for listener to mix as they listen. Is this the future of music?

Powerful, local stories can inspire us to take action on climate change

Kamyar Razavi talks about the importance of giving flesh to the facts when it comes to global warming. Although fear can be a useful tool for mobilising people, storytelling helps with engaging at a more personal level.

From the clinical trial to role-playing games, why do some ideas arrive so late?

Tim Harford reflects on the ideas that were behind their time.

Read Write Respond #069

So that was September for me, how about you? As always, hope you are safe and well.

When I was in the classroom, it was always frustrating when another class was let out to play early or given ‘free time’. It is hard to get anyone to pay attention when a perceived injustice is at play. This is what it has felt like living through Melbourne’s sixth lockdown this month, while NSW moves onto life living life with COVID. Although there maybe a ‘national plan’, it would seem the reality maybe something different. To play on Orwell, “All States are equal, but some states are more equal than others.” All in all, it has been a terse reminder of the political nature of the current pandemic. In more positive news, I was lucky enough to get my first jab of AstraZeneca.

On the work front, I have been doing my best to get ahead of the game by creating some tools to analyse the data in preparation for the rush that is the end of year. As is often said, focus on what you can control.

Personally, I have been diving into a range of books. When you are stuck at home, it is useful to break up the monotony by exploring some other world.

In reading a novel, any novel, we have to know perfectly well that the whole thing is nonsense, and then, while reading, believe every word of it. Finally, when we’re done with it, we may find – if it’s a good novel – that we’re a bit different from what we were before we read it, that we have changed a little, as if by having met a new face, crossed a street we never crossed before. But it’s very hard to say just what we learned, how we were changed.

I have read Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Notes from the Underground, Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, George Orwell’s Animal Farm, Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness, Chilly Gonzales’ Enya: A Treatise on Unguilty Pleasures and Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future. I have also been listening to Halsey’s If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power, Kate Bush’s Before The Dawn, Lorde’s Solar Power, TFS’ Deep States and Damian Cowell’s Only The Shit You Love.

Here then are some of the other links and ideas that have had me thinking:

Education

Teachers use many teaching approaches to impart knowledge. Pitting one against another harms education

Alan Reid raises three flaws with the argument that inquiry-based approaches harm student learning. He argues that teachers regularly move up and down the teacher-centred and student-centred continuum, that not all inquiry is the same and that the data used to form the position is problematic.

The ‘how’ and ‘why’ of the classroom

Naomi Fisher pushes back on the ‘what works’ mantra and instead argues that how and why matter just as much.

Feedback Is Oxygen For Your Ideas — Start With A Minimum Verbal Prototype

Tom Barrett discusses the importance of developing prototypes early on in a project in order to gain feedback and give oxygen to the ideas being developed.

The Rocks and Minerals of Minecraft

Jolyon Ralph explores the rocks and minerals in Minecraft comparing them to their real world examples.

Technology

Rewilding Your Attention

Clive Thompson discusses going beyond the ‘inner ring of the internet’ to instead engage with the activity of rewilding our attention online.

Now, On the Internet, Everyone Knows You’re a Dog – An Introduction to Digital Identity

Noah Katz and Brenda Leong provide an introduction to digital identity and where it maybe heading in the future.

Why are Hyperlinks Blue?

Elise Blanchard traces the history of hyperlinks being blue to Mosaic, Windows 3.1 and the support for colour monitors.

How Private Is My VPN?

Alfred Ng reports on the different ways in which VPN providers collect data on users.

General

Was US failure in Afghanistan inevitable?

Stephen Wertheim, Scott Stephens and Waleed Aly examine the Taliban’s retaking of Afghanistan and the US legacy.

The invisible addiction: is it time to give up caffeine?

Michael Pollan explains how we often overlook the impact caffeine has in creating a collected altered state that we have come to take for granted.

Save The Last Dance for Me (Australian Story)

On the back of the documentary The Last Dance, Australian Story explores Luc Longley’s legacy in the NBA and his ommision.

Town planners on a ‘crusade’ against TB could help us to redesign our cities post-COVID

Sarah Scopelianos reflects upon the changes made in regards to town planning one hundred years ago to combat tuberculous. She explores some of the possible changes including a move to more low rise appartments and the investment in open spaces.

Read Write Respond #068

So that was August for me, how about you? As always, hope you are safe and well and have been able to get your jab too.

SEO

FLICKR

TWITTER

Personally, I read Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 and Cory Doctorow’s Radicalized. I also listened to new albums from Darkside and The Bleachers. In regards to my writing, I wrote a reflection on using Google Sheets to manage the little things.

Here then are some of the posts that have had me thinking:

Education

Leading schools in lockdown: Compassion, community and communication

Fiona Longmuir explores the challenges associated with educational leadership during Melbourne’s long lockdown in 2020.

You Don’t Have Writer’s Block. You Have “Reporter’s Block”

Clive Thompson makes the argument that the answer to writer’s block is more research.

Differentiating online variations of the Commonplace Book: Digital Gardens, Wikis, Zettlekasten, Waste Books, Florilegia, and Second Brains

Chris Aldrich traces this history of commonplace books through Western civilization.

Self-Publishing

Cory Doctorow reflects upon the monopolisation of the book publishing industry and the perils associated with self-publishing.

Technology

We Need To Talk About The Insecurity Industry

Edward Snowden responds to news of the Pegasus Project, arguing that incentivise change and introduce a level of liability.

Co-constructing Digital Futures: Parents and Children becoming Thoughtful, Connected, and Critical Users of Digital Technologies

W. Ian O’Byrne, Kristen Turner, Kathleen A. Paciga and Elizabeth Stevens share findings based on case studies stemming from their own digital parenting with a focus on how we might empower children to advocate for their own rights, rather than focusing the conversation around fear and harm.

Planning the Exodus from Platform Realism

Ben Grosser discusses the need to turn away from private for-profit platforms to more public entities whose interest is not profit.

4 Lessons From the Improbable Rise of QR Codes

Clive Thompson reflects on the rise of QR Codes from being something of a gimmick to an actual solution to a problem during the pandemic.

General

Bullshit Ability as an Honest Signal of Intelligence

A team of Canadian researchers have presented some preliminary findings associated with ability to bullshit and its association with intelligence. Through their study, they found that the ability to bullshit was an honest signal of a persons ability to ‘successfully navigate social systems’.

Why Can’t We Be Friends

Brendan Mackie talks about the idea of parasociality and our one way conversations online.

How ‘Soft Fascination’ Helps Restore Your Tired Brain

Markham Heid discusses the importance of finding balance in our attention diet. He divides these activities into hard and soft fascinations. Not sure the Groundhog Day grind of lockdown helps with this balance.

Plunging Into the Abyss

Douglas Rushkoff reflects upon how people of all types and backgrounds are falling under the conspiracy fever. He explains that it is not about the truth, but rather the addiction of finding a missing piece of information in order to receive a hit of endorphin.

How streaming made hit songs more important than the pop stars who sing them

Charlie Harding explains how the focus for artists in the past was getting played on radio, nowadays it is on social media platforms and playlists.

Read Write Respond #067

So that was July for me, how about you? As always, hope you are safe and well in these crazy times.